Falling
by EnglandBabe1997
Summary: Tony is falling not flying. And Pepper is falling with him.
1. Chapter 1

_I've had this story written for a few days but I've only just had a chance to post it xx Please read and review!_

Her breath shorted, looking at the destruction that had been made of the city, live on television. She knew it was cruel of her but at the minute she couldn't bring herself to care. Not while _he_ was out there fighting. She'd known what could happen to him the second Phil had walked into Stark Tower.

And now Stark Tower was half destroyed. There was a close-up of the building, a sinister electrical blue light spiralling up from the roof towards the sky, appearing to be the cause for the chasm from which horrific creatures were escaping.

A reporter wondered if this had been Tony Stark's doing.

His name brought the fear and what if's surging back to the front of her brain. The city was being destroyed. And Tony was somewhere in the middle of it.

Her eyes were avidly glued to the screen, peeled for any sign of her boyfriend, every sight that he was alright. At the minute there was nothing. She couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad one.

She saw him.

It had definitely been a good thing.

Her boyfriend was guiding something that looked suspiciously like a nuclear missile into space. She nearly had a heart attack just watching. The camera's focussed on Tony Stark flying towards the chasm for a few more seconds, their comments roaring in her ears, before switching to ... _Captain America?_ She wanted to scream. As interesting as Captain America's revival was, and she was sure that Tony wasn't particularly happy, she wanted to keep her eyes on her boyfriend.

If she admitted to that later he'd probably claim it was because of his stunning looks.

The camera's swung back as Ironman flew into space. She decided then and there she'd admit it if he came back unharmed.

There were a few tense seconds that lasted centuries.

One channel continued to focus on the space Tony had just flown in to.

Another focussed on the roof of Stark Tower where Natasha stood. She would've been quite happy to see her if it hadn't been apparent that Natasha was in the process of shutting down the portal.

While her boyfriend was still in space.

She was almost praying, muttering please under her breath repeatedly, seconds ticking like decades.

For a moment it seemed her prayer had been answered. Her boyfriend appeared back on screen, the sky empty and clear once more. She sighed in relief, the bands that had been tightening on her heart relaxing. They wouldn't be gone until she properly saw him again.

Her prayer had been answered.

Then she realised, the constraints tightening around her heart once more.

He was falling, not flying.

And his arc reactor wasn't glowing.

Pepper was falling with him.


	2. Chapter 2

_I know that this is much shorter than the first part, but I thought it fit quite well x Please read and and review to tell me what you think x_

He wasn't even conscious when he fell out of the sky, but he can still feel the falling. It's all his head, he knows, but that doesn't stop it from being real. Not really.

He falls too much, all of the time. From grace, from his Tower, from the top of his company building. If he can fall he's probably done it.

How many times has he almost made Pepper watch him die?

And now he can add one more to the count, falling to the ground out of an alien wormhole, only alive by a while lot of luck and the roar of a giant rage monster.

It's not fair, he knows that. He really shouldn't make her watch this, not over and over, but he knows that he's too selfish to let her go, even for her own good, and he knows that even if he asked her to she would refuse.

Because Pepper loves him to.

He loves her, and he's loved so few people.

And she loves him, and he thinks she just might be the first to.

So he can't let her go, not now, now ever, because he loves her. She is different to anyone he's ever known before and will ever know again. She can keep up with him, and outsmart him, and trick him into doing things that no one else ever could.

And he lets her because she's Pepper.

She's Pepper and when he's with her he feels like he's flying and that's a much better feeling than falling.


	3. Chapter 3

**The ending isn't great, but I thought that this needed something to tie the last two chapters together x Please read and review x**

They love each other and it's a feeling neither of them have much experience with, not even Pepper. They love the feeling, but they love each other more. It's why they put up with each other, even when Pepper threatens to quit and Tony goes on suicide missions to space.

None of that matters, not really, because they hold on to each other tighter than they've ever done before.

And sometimes it's suffocating. That's when Pepper flies off to Japan on business for the weekend or Tony locks himself in the lab.

And other times it makes them feel safer and more alive than they ever have. It's new to them, this caring thing.

What had they wasted so much time?

Neither of them could work out the reason, but they both know it was a stupid one. Because feeling like this was much better than whatever the media could say and what the public could think. This feeling was stronger than any of that, stronger than anything they'd ever felt. It was what got them through Iron Man and Afghanistan and the nuke going into space.

It could withstand a few petty reporters.

It is strong enough to keep them together, even when Tony is falling from the sky his arc reactor dead and Pepper can't do anything more than watch him.

Because even when they are falling, they are falling together, and then it doesn't really matter.


End file.
